Historic board has ambitious plan

The Anacortes Historic Preservation Board’s has an ambitious, exciting agenda for 2009, and our talented, enthusiastic board members are well-qualified to meet the challenges ahead.

 

Initiative #1:  Survey 2009

This is a continuation of our effort to create an inventory of historic properties here in Anacortes. This activity is mandated by our charter, which is contained in City Ordinance 2530, and the Certified Local Government* program in which Anacortes participates.

We applied for and were awarded a state grant to cover our survey work. 

To date, we have added another 46 properties in the area from J to T, north of 12th.  This will complete Old Town portion of the survey.

We are now moving south of 12th-- something which Brad and Nick you both have asked us to do.  To date, we have placed 60 buildings from the area south of 12th to 24th   on the survey.  That’s a total of 106 buildings so far this year.  We are hoping to extend our survey even further.

We’ve been able to cover this kind of ground because we have introduced a number of efficiencies into our survey work.  

Thanks to Rob Hoxie, the City’s GIS coordinator for his cooperation and assistance in providing maps and lists.  I also want to make special mention of Jim Young, a board member who has done a great deal of work on the inventory database.

 

INITIATIVE #2 – Researching the History of Your Old House: A Workshop

Our second initiative this year is a workshop on researching the history of your house.  Our goal is to show people how and where they can obtain information on their house.  We are holding this workshop because we’ve had so many requests from the public.  It’s going to be held on Jan 24 at the library from 1-3.  Everyone is invited; no pre-registration is required.  The Board is also looking at other options for workshops, and we invite public input on topics.

 

INITIATIVE #3 – House History and Plaque program

Closely tied to our January workshop is our third initiative for 2009, the House History and Plaque program.  This is a new program where interested home owners can use the skills they acquired during the workshop to complete a house history form.   The completed form is filed at the Museum, where it becomes an important record of the built history of Anacortes.  People who complete a house history are eligible to obtain for a small fee a plaque listing the first owners and date their house was built.  

 

INITIATIVE #4 – Commercial Avenue Plaque Program

We have begun researching buildings on Commercial Ave. with the goal of implementing a downtown plaque program.  This is a project we are working on with the Chamber of Commerce.  Our objective is to identify how a building has been used historically and to provide a date.  Some examples include:  the Bank of Pacific, which was the old Paramount Theater.  Watermark Bookstore used to be the Carpenters Union Hall.  Charles Judd used to have his photography studio in a portion of what is now the Mercantile.

 

INITIATIVE #5 – Interpretive Signage

Every town, every city has a unique history—and so do we.  So let’s tell the story of Anacortes.

We would like to develop interpretive signage around the Downtown core and into adjoining areas, possibly as part of a walking tour.  We think we can spend remaining Apex mitigation funds to do that.   We are looking at something similar to the Guemes channel signs but on a smaller scale.

Our goal here is to build on the downtown plaque program and to stimulate interest in the history of our community among citizens and visitors alike.   Steve Cox is serving as the Board’s point man on this project.

 

INITIATIVE #6 – Updating and Expanding our Website.

Accomplished!

If you type Anacortes and Historic Preservation into Google, our webpage pops right up.  It contains lots of information on preservation.  Thanks for this achieving this objective go to Jose Cervantes of the City’s IT team and to Jim Young for designing the website.

 

INITIATIVE #7 – Expand the Anacortes Register of Historic Places

In December, the City Council voted to add the first two private residences to the local register.  We would like to increase that number in 2009.

Within the next few weeks we will be going to the City Council with a proposal to add properties in Anacortes that are on National Register to our local register.  This is a discrepancy that arose because no local register existed in 1987 when these properties were placed on the National Register.

Editor's Note: Susan Rooks is chair of the Anacortes Historic Preservation Board.